


Of Sacrifice and Loss

by himynameisv



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), FebuWhump2021, Gen, Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, this is a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:21:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29223126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/himynameisv/pseuds/himynameisv
Summary: They're crumpled to the ground on the plains of Wakanda; Thanos looms over them; Vision lies dead on the ground. And then, a familiar flash of green.FEBUWHUMP PROMPT #5: "TAKE ME INSTEAD"
Relationships: Brunnhilde | Valkyrie & Thor (Marvel), Loki & Thor (Marvel), Thor & Avengers Team
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2142768
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Of Sacrifice and Loss

**Author's Note:**

> AU where Loki somehow escapes the Statesman with the tesseract. If you ask me how he did so, then I have nothing to offer you. Lol. I didn't exactly think it all the way through. That would be too much work.

Thanos loomed over them.

The Avengers - the _heroes_ \- were crumpled on the ground in various states of pain and distress.

And Thor, well, Thor was staring at Thanos's gauntleted hand, another glittering infinity stone further to half the world's doom.

The Titan's daughter, Supergiant, clenched her fingers together, and Thor winced against the pinpricks of pain from behind his eyes.

"You won't win," Steve gritted out, one hand curled on the ground for some semblance of stability.

Thanos smiled. "I already have."

But that wasn't true, was it?

"You know you're still missing two stones?" Bruce called out. Thanos turned towards him, and he gulped. Clear veins of green trailed down his face and neck, but the Hulk would not be released.

"These stones have only propelled me towards an inevitable victory. No being has ever wielded four at once. So, you see, I have already won."

"Bit premature for that, isn't it?" the metal-armed man muttered. (The Captain's friend. What was his name? Buck? Stag?)

Thanos may have thought himself inevitable, but two stones _were still_ missing. Soul and space.

Soul was lost forever, but space...

Thor closed his eyes tightly, and hoped Loki was nowhere near here.

"What should we do with them?" Supergiant asked, and what kind of name was Supergiant, anyways? Did she have a lack of self-confidence and needed to reaffirm her own strength? Did _Thanos_ name her? (Was that worse?)

"Kill them," Thanos said calmly. "They have been detrimental to our mission."

They all cried out, holding their heads in their hands as the pain exploded. Thor vaguely registered Proxima Midnight wielding her spear, and Corvus Glaive unsheathing his weapon.

And then a brush of magic, as familiar to Thor as his own voice. A flash of distinctive green out of the corner of his eye.

"Shit," Val cursed. She must have seen it too.

Loki came out of the swirling green mist rather dramatically, but all Thor felt was his heart sinking into his stomach.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Valkyrie beat him to it. "What the hell, Lackey? You're supposed to be far away from here!"

Loki smirked in their direction. "I've never been good at what I'm supposed to do."

He turned his attention to Thanos then. The Titan seemed almost...amused.

"I'm going to kill him," Val muttered under her breath; but Thor was close enough to hear.

"He's already dead," he whispered back, remembering what Loki told him before everything had gone down.

_"He has been looking to punish me, all of these years. My death was set in stone the moment I met him."_

The pain in his head had diminished, Supergiant's attention having narrowed to Loki. He could hear those behind him begin to stumble into a standing position, but he could only watch.

"You dare confront me after your failure?" Thanos asked. Loki's hands were clasped tightly behind him, and Thor could imagine them trembling like they were back at the Statesman.

Loki ignored the Titan's dig at him. "I have a proposition to make." He appeared calm, but his carefully crafted mask could not fool Thor.

"I'm listening," Thanos murmured, having apparently forgotten about the rest of them.

Thor moved to summon Stormbreaker from wherever it was, but Proxima poked her spear towards him, and then towards Natasha as a clear warning.

Natasha glared at her but didn't move, either. She tilted her head towards Loki, and then gestured towards Thor in what seemed to be a _I thought he was dead_ gesture.

Thor shrugged helplessly.

"I have the tesseract," Loki continued.

"Loki, no!" he called out. Half the universe was going to die, damn it! They didn't fight up until now for it to come to this!

Loki determinedly did not look in his direction. "I have the tesseract," he continued, "and I'm offering it to you."

"Oh shit," Rhodes realized from some distance behind him. "That's the guy who threw Tones out a window."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Sam commented.

"The window was at the top of a _skyscraper_!"

Loki cleared his throat loudly, a grimace painting his face. "As I was saying, you can have the tesseract. Away from here, that is."

"And why can't I take it from you now? It'll hardly be a challenge."

A breath caught in Loki's throat. After a few seconds, he carefully said, "In your eyes, you are not cruel. You are fair. Let me fulfill my end of the bargain. You promised me pain worse than death if I failed, did you not?"

"Yes..." Thanos murmured.

"What is he talking about?" a fierce Wakandan warrior asked. King T'Challa shook his head, entranced in the spectacle happening in front of them.

"Who...who is he?" Wanda asked, voice still raw from the grief she had cried out at the death of Vision.

"The guy who attacked New York a few years back," Steve answered softly.

"Thor's brother," Bruce added from his position beside the destroyed Hulkbuster machine.

Loki's next words were clipped. "Take me instead." A pause. "Do not make me beg for this. You promised me pain, and that will happen."

Thor opened his mouth to protest, but Loki shot a silencing spell at him without even glancing in his direction (like looking at Thor would loosen his resolve).

"But once you collect all of the stones, these soldiers, these...Avengers," Loki let a wry smile split his face, "will be mowed down anyways. Split in half. Why kill them all now when you can balance the universe later?"

And it made a twisted sort of sense, didn't it? (Loki had always made a twisted sort of sense.)

Thanos considered Loki's offer for a few seconds. Thor held his breath. "And you will give me the tesseract?"

Loki hesitated, and then nodded. "Once we leave this insignificant planet." He curled his lip. "Better late than never, I suppose."

"Wait. You can't just give it to him!" Steve cried out. "The fate of the universe depends-"

Natasha elbowed him in the ribs, and he doubled over. "He's trying to save us, Steve," she whispered fiercely. "Give him a last chance to redeem himself. It's not like we can do anything about it now."

"She's right," Wanda said. "We've lost, and we have to accept it." She looked forlornly down at her lover's lifeless body.

"Very well then," Thanos murmured with a self-assured smile. Thor wanted to wipe it off his face.

He gestured at Supergiant, and then the pain _exploded_. They cried out and collapsed to the ground, right where they had started.

Thor pressed his forehead into his hands, but didn't - couldn't - make a noise. Loki's spell was still on him.

His brother sent him a flash of a smile. A real, true smile, before they were enveloped in darkness.

He woke up to find the sky just as they'd left it.

And then he remembered what had transpired.

He turned his head towards the clearing they had been in, eyes widening and breath catching in his throat.

They were gone. They were gone!

He stood up abruptly, ignoring the sounds of others waking up and pushing away his slight dizziness. He ran towards where Loki had been standing, mere feet away from his tormentor (Loki had refused to acknowledge it, but Thor had filled in the blanks).

He crashed to his knees next to a small bottle stopper. It was gilded and a little scratched, but whole.

Which pretty much summarized Loki's life.

_"If you were here, I might even give you a hug."_

_Throwing the bottle stopper, expecting it to clatter to the ground. The smack of it hitting flesh._

_Loki, smiling._

_"I'm here."_

Well, he certainly wasn't now.

"Reveal yourself," he croaked out, hoping against hope that it had been another one of his tricks. "Loki, _please_."

But Thanos had always been thorough. "Please," he whispered once more.

He couldn't lose Loki, not again. Not after they had finally found one another. Not after Father and Mother had died, not after the Warriors Three, not after Ragnarok.

Thor had been foolish, to think he'd stay.

The others were beginning to regroup now, coming up with scraps of plans on what to do next.

But they needed to rest. _Thor_ needed to rest. He was just so tired, traveling from one disaster to another.

A hand squeezed his shoulder. He looked up to find Val, face grim, eyes sympathetic. "We'll get him back," she vowed.

Bruce was running towards them, so Thor looked down, squeezing the abandoned object tightly in his hands. It was a sign, a promise.

_"I'm here."_

It would probably leave marks on his skin.

"We'll get him back," she repeated.

Thor wasn't so sure.

**Author's Note:**

> Basically...I think...that if Loki escaped the Statesman, he would've done so before Thanos attacked. Thor, Bruce, and Val would've gone to Earth to protect the other stones, leaving Heimdall alive and behind with the people. So, no Guardians bc Thor didn't slam into them; they're probably flying in space rn, not knowing anything. W/out Gamora, Thanos wouldn't have the soul stone yet, so there's still hope! Maybe!
> 
> Originally, I was gonna have Ebony Maw there, but then I realized he's dead, courtesy of Peter + Tony (oof, the poor trio probably didn't stand a chance on Titan). So, Supergiant's an adequate replacement, even tho she wasn't in the movies.
> 
> Yeah, I apparently did think this through (kind of), contrary to what I said before.


End file.
